TAR SANDS: WORTH THE ENERGY? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FUTURE OF UTAH'S TAR SANDS

摘要

The rapid and sustained rise of the cost of foreign oil has caused the Bush Administration and the energy sector to look within America's borders for domestic oil resources. This policy focus has led the current administration, Congress, and the oil industry to focus their attentions on Utah, which contains approximately ninety-three percent of the United States' total tar sand resources, a resource thought to have the ability to produce an estimated twenty-five billion barrels of oil.1 In combination with an estimated fifty billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale, many in the energy industry and in the government think Utah is in position to become an important player in the oil industry.2